1st Millennium BC (Archaeology)

While many scholars have interpreted Achaemenid religious policy as one of indifference, the inscriptions on the Naoforo Vaticano statue of Udjahorresnet tell a different tale. These texts demonstrate a strategic willingness to allow—and even support—heterogeneous religious customs to the benefit of the Achaemenid Empire. On the statue of Udjahorresnet, both the religious and political importance of Neith is clear: She, as the mother of the sun god Re, was at the center of the religious cult in Sais, the political center of power for Egypt’s Twenty-sixth Dynasty. A reading of the inscriptions of Udjahorresnet’s statue reveals a deliberate policy on the part of Cambyses, and later Darius, to reestablish and maintain a critical Egyptian cult, thus imbedding Persian dominion within the religious tradition of Egypt and making a strong political statement.

Ce catalogue est publié à l'occasion de l'exposition « Servir les dieux d'Égypte. Divines adoratrices, chanteuses et prêtres d'Amon à Thèbes » Musée de Grenoble, 25 octobre 2018-27 janvier 2019 Une exposition organisée par le musée de Grenoble et le musée du Louvre.

This paper presents for the first time a significant group of archaeological remains coming from the site named Los Concejiles (Lobón, Spain). All of them are surface findings where stand out the Late Bronze typical «Lapa do Fumo» pottery. Such type of hand-made pottery with polish external decoration makes a clear relationship with both the Beira Interior and Alentejo regions of Portugal during the Late Bronze Age. Furthermore, it is shown an interesting set of little bronzes (fibulae, tools, wheigts…) in which we can see the same cultural connections. The site is a big hill-spur from where is possible to take a great territorial control over the Guadiana and his valley. Similar archaeological Late Bronze items have been located in adjoining little plane sites. So, Los Concejiles can be considered a Central Place into the Late Bronze territorial ordering along the river.

Over the Early Iron Age there are in Southern Spain some Phoenician and Orientalizing little bronze sculptures which can be called as precursors of the Iberian bronze votive figurines. The Phoenician group is the best know one. It must be attributed as a whole to an eastern production that reachs the western end of the Mediterranean between the 8th and 7th centuries BC as a result of the Phoenician colonisation. In the other side there are a series of bronze figurines, mostly of them out of context, which should cover the space between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, thus showing the evidence of an Orientalizing local production. In these bronze figurines, together with iconographic elements clearly derived from the Phoenician tradition, there are others wich will appear later on the properly called Iberian bronze votive figurines.

The book brings to light the results of the first excavation in the old town of Trogir in 1978-1980, within the Trogir Town Museum (Garagnin - Fanfogna palace), with the contribution to the Hellenistic urbanism of central Dalmatia, and the description and analysis of more than 4000 recorded artefacts (mostly pottery, some lithic, glass, metal and stone finds) covering the time span from the Upper Paleolithic Period, Bronze and Iron Ages to Hellenistic, Roman and Medieval Period in Trogir/central Dalmatia.

The bronze objects found in the Iberian Peninsula corresponding to the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. have been traditionally mentioned under the generic group of “Tartesian Bronzes”. This name, accepts more or less explicitly a native production for the orientalizing finds. A global approach, mainly based on the case of the jugs and the incense-burners, allows to order different craftmanship traditions whose displays a cultural and chronological distribution that seems to be coherent with the historical background that we know for this period. The most important group are the western phoenician bronzes where we must include the typical orientalizing objects such the piriform jugs, «braseros» and incense-burners. This colonial group seems to disappear at the end of the 7th century BC, at the same time of a serie of social and economical transformations in the western phoenician society. There’s no place for the easterna imports on this orientalizang group. Nevertheless, the most of the bronze deities figurines found in Huelva and Cadiz must to be regarded as eastern products. We can detecte Greek imports, also from the 625 BC. The greek bronzes came to replace the previous western phoenician items. The activitity of the native bronze centres is even recognized in the most of ornament fits, that seem to have a common technical and typological trajectory from the Late Bronze to the 6th century and later.

Abstract: The present paper offers a new theory with regard to the Greek presence at Naukratis during the late 7th and the first half of the 6th century BC, emphasising the hitherto unacknowledged role of Lydians as mediators between Egypt and Greeks. After establishing a reliable chronological framework for Naukratis’ foundation, it is suggested that the initial establishment of Greek commercial settlement at Naukratis should be seen as a by-product of the treaty that was contracted between Lydia and Miletus toward the end of the 7th century BC. Concerning the next significant phase of Naukratis’ history, which took place during the reign of Amasis and was accompanied by administrative reform and the construction of the Hellenion, it is suggested that only the Greek poleis that found themselves under the aegis of the Lydian empire, or who were on friendly terms with it, could officially operate on Egyptian soil during this period. Revealing the Lydian connection behind the commercial activities of Greeks in Naukratis, against the background of Lydian imperial aspirations, allows better understanding of contact zones in antiquity.

RESUMEN: Se conocen muchos asentamientos de época ibérica y romana en el Monte Horquera, e incluso esta región ha sido la precursora de la investigación arqueológica en algunos temas como el de los “recintos fortificados”. Sin embargo, los trabajos que se han realizado al respecto son demasiado antiguos, y en ningún caso han buscado ofrecer una perspectiva global de la Historia Antigua de la zona, sino que han consistido en estudios sobre yacimientos o elementos arqueológicos concretos. Nosotros pretendemos aquí sintetizar todo el conocimiento disponible sobre esta región de la campiña de Córdoba en época antigua.

The current article deals with Achaemenid imperial policy in fourth century BCE southern Levant, as is evident by the historical sources and the archaeological data. It is suggested that following the Egyptian rebellion of 404–400 BCE, southern Palestine underwent major transformation as a result of becoming the southwestern frontier of the Persian Empire. An attempt to reconstruct the political history and its social and economical manifestation is been offered, while focusing on the inland regions of Judah and Edom. One of the major consequences of this new geo-political reality has resulted
in the canonization of the Torah. Thus, its inception should no longer be viewed as an outcome of inner-societal compromises between different Judahite groups, but rather as a conscious response of Jerusalem’s priestly circles to early fourth century BCE Zeitgeist of the southern Levant, when Egypt was no longer a part of the Persian Empire.

El Castañuelo is, a little “hillfort” close Aracena (Spain). From its excavation in the nineteen seventies it has been considered as the main reference for the Celtic presences in Sierra Norte de Huelva. Such approach, based on the literary sources, is discussed here. The typical Celtic elements that have been seen into the archaeological repertories from this site are now revised too. El Castañuelo seems to be a mountain settlement located in the periphery of the Post‐Orientalizing cultures that are occupying the Middle and Low Guadiana during the 5th century BC. This agrees with the life of the Monumental Complexes from South Extremadura, as Cancho Roano, with which many analogies concerning archaeological formal repertories are observed.

The volume provides an in-depth study of an architectural ensemble that consists of an open court and elevated chapel, better known as the wabet, and forms an essential part of the layout of a dozen temples in Egypt of the Thirtieth Dynasty and the Ptolemaic and Roman era (e.g Philae, Edfu, Dendara, Shanhur, and Deir Shalwit). The volume focuses on the ensemble's location, orientation, and layout, the designations in use to refer to the complex, and the decorative scheme applied to its walls in order to gain a better insight into the activities performed in the complex and its role within the temple. The volume also takes a closer look at various plausible precursors of the complex in temples of the New Kingdom and the Late Period and examines the ensemble's relation to the wabet as a 'place of embalming'.

Available at: http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/83962

ABSTRACT Although Greek contacts with the Southern Levant during the Iron Age have been studied at length, the matter remains controversial in many aspects. The present study provides an overview of East-West contacts during the first half of the 1st millennium BC, suggesting to divide it into five major periods of contact. These periods, involving a different chronological setting, are characterized by different ‘total contexts’, heavily shaped by geopolitical dynamics. It is suggested that every period of contacts (or their absence) requires a different explanation.

ABSTRACT The article attempts to reconstruct the history of southern Israel (the BeershebaValley, the Shephelah and the southern Coastal Plain) in the Late Iron I and Iron IIA. It shows that activity in the so-called ‘Tel Masos chiefdom’ commenced in the Iron I and peaked in the Early Iron IIA—parallel to the copper mining activity at Khirbet en-Nahas. Regarding the early phase of this time-span, the article proposesthat the Sheshonq I campaign did not bring about the destruction of the Tel Masos chiefdom; rather, the major phase of activity in the south—in the Early Iron IIA— was a result of Egyptian involvement in the region. Regarding the end of the Iron IIA,the article rejects the notion that the Iron IIA–IIB transition should be affiliated withthe earthquake mentioned in Amos 1: 1; it dates this transition to ca. 800 BCE.

ABSTRACT The canonization of the Pentateuch has preoccupied scholars from different disciplines from antiquity to the present. However, two major questions still require an explanation: when did it happen and why did it happen? In this two-part article an attempt has been made to clarify these issues. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, where the insights of redaction criticism are merged with archaeologically-supported historical analysis, we suggest that the inception of the Torah-canonization should be viewed within the framework of the geopolitical transformation that characterized the first half of the fourth century BCE, when, following a major Egyptian rebellion, Egypt was no longer a part of the Persian Empire, while southern Palestine became the empire’s frontier for the first time in more than a century of Achaemenid rule. The canonization of the essentially anti-Egyptian version of the Torah in the early fourth century BCE should be considered as a conscious response of Jerusalem’s priestly circles to this new reality, signaling to the imperial authorities that they are dealing
with loyal subjects that consider Egypt as a world of chaos, an antithesis to the world of cosmicorder, so central to Persian imperial self-understanding.

The Priests’Quarter is a housing quarter located within the sanctuary of Amun in Karnak, to the east of the Sacred Lake. For almost all of the first millennium BC, it
was occupied by priests performing their cultic service. The history and evolution of this quarter, as well as the identity, material culture, daily life and diet of its inhabitants, have been established through multidisciplinary collaboration during excavation and post-excavation studies. This paper examines its early phases, during the Third Intermediate and Late periods, and explores how this settlement fits into the larger
context of the temple, particularly its direct religious and architectural environment on the southern bank on the Sacred Lake.

This article re-examines a circular ivory pyxis lid from Tharros, which-despite its fine craftsmanship-has been little studied and remains almost unknown. After a short history of studies on the Near Eastern ivories of the 1st millennium bc and their problematic association with the Phoenicians, this find is thoroughly investigated and is compared to some fragmentary examples from Nimrud and a circular pyxis from Tell Halaf dating to around the 10th-8th century bc. Among the various hypotheses that have been formulated to explain the function of these pyxides, the more compelling argument is that they originally contained expensive spices and condiments to be used as drink or food additives, as their association with the banquet is supported by the few available iconographic sources. Finally, the question remains open whether this lid should be considered a Near Eastern ivory heirloom or -as some discrepancies with the Levantine examples would indicate-a later artefact manufactured in a western Mediterranean centre, with Tharros itself and Carthage being the most likely candidates.

11/02/2021: “Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean. Spaces, Mobilities, Imaginaries”

Sanctuaries were at times established near a natural feature such as a spring, river, pond, lake, woods, outcrop, mountain or cave. Although these natural places can become sacralized spaces without any need of construction activities, they have sometimes developed into built sacred areas, where these elements may even have been monumentalized. This rarely occurred in the case of cave-sanctuaries, which often preserved their original (and sometimes already monumental) aspect, especially when these caves were in remote locations or accessible only by sea. Whatever their position, caves are liminal spaces, zones marked off from the world, but their boundaries are nonetheless permeable. Going into a cave means crossing a threshold, which represents the border between the worlds of the familiar and the unknown. Why was such liminality required? What type of deities inhabited these spaces? What rites were performed there?
This paper aims at carefully exploring the historical, social and topographical context which influenced the establishment of certain cave-sanctuaries in the ancient Mediterranean. Three case studies will be considered: 1) Gorham’s cave (c. 8th-2nd century BC) in Gibraltar; 2) es Culleram (c. 5th-2nd century BC) in Ibiza, and 3) Grotta Regina (c. 5th-2nd/1st centuries BC) near Palermo. These three caves show different characteristics with regard to their position, landscape, sensescape, provenance and type of finds, presence/absence of inscriptions and clear evidence for a titular deity. All of them are located within Phoenician/Punic territories and were probably established by Phoenician/Punic speaking groups. The goal is to determine why, by whom and for what purpose these sanctuaries were established, by whom they were frequented, what cultic activities may have been performed inside these caves and to what types of deities they were dedicated. By comparing their features, it will be possible to identify common elements and peculiarities, and, consequently, determine their possible association with certain types of deity.

Durante los días en que tuvieron lugar en Madrid las conferencias que integran el grueso de este volumen monográfico dedicado a la Arquitectura Orientalizante en la Península Ibérica, se estaba produciendo en Oliva de Mérida (Badajoz) uno de los descubrimientos que, probablemente, venga a aportar más información sobre este aspecto de la arqueología de la Primera Edad del Hierro en Extremadura en particular, y en todo el Suroeste peninsular en general: la excavación, por vía de urgencia, del poblado de El Palomar. Con casi 2.500 m 2 de superficie abierta en dos sectores distintos, este poblado se convierte en el yacimiento orientalizante más extensamente excavado de toda la Península Ibérica. Este hecho, unido al excelente estado de conservación de las estructuras antiguas, hace que los aspectos referidos a arquitectura y urbanismo puedan ser estudiados con especial detalle e intensidad. Las excavaciones han puesto al descubierto restos de casas, calles empedradas, estructuras posiblemente relacionadas con actividades agropecuarias, restos de trabajos metalúrgicos y un edificio de grandes proporciones que interpretamos como almacén excedentario.

This paper provides a re-examination of a duck-shaped “offering spoon” that was originally found in the so-called Chapelle Cintas within the Tophet sanctuary of Carthage, but that has remained unpublished until very recently. It is argued that, given its Egyptian prototypes, it enriches the variety of Mediterranean connections already shown by the other artefacts that were retrieved in the same find-context. In addition, it shows that the early ivories found in the North African metropolis can be related to various ivory carving traditions and confirms the special and direct relationship that Carthage had with Egypt/Nubia, but also the connection between its ivories and those from the Iberian Peninsula, where the closest parallel for this spoon is currently known. Moreover, the use of an object that in the Egyptian tradition was associated with wellbeing, prosperity, fertility, birth and regeneration fits very well with the current understanding of Tophets and would imply a clear awareness of its original meaning and that it was not deposited by chance in the Carthaginian sanctuary.

From the end of the 1990’s a set of Iron Age bronzes is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Lisbon. They are qualified as unknown origin although they come wide probably from the Low Guadiana region. The set consists of more than one hundred objects, highlighting the components of carriage and horse harness, but there are also some remains of vessels, a spit and ornament elements. Some of the most outstanding pieces have been presented or referred to in a preliminary way, but the bulk of the set remained still unpublished. A detailed study including its contextualisation in the Iron Age of the South Portugal waited to be done. In this paper we face this approach because we believe that is one of the Post-Orientalising bronze sets more complete and more important in the Southwestern Iberian peninsula.

Al. Linhas de Torres, 97, 3º dto. 1750-140 Lisboa Tel/fax 21 758 22 85 apenaslivros@oninetspeed.pt Depósito legal nº ISBN: 978-989-618-1 1ª edição: 250 exemplares Outubro de 2008 Publicação nº Revisão de Luís Filipe Coelho Colecção OS VICENTES, 3 Dirigida por Margarida Almeida Bastos muralha onde se recolheu um importante conjunto cerâmico com o típico engobe vermelho, compreendido pelos autores entre os séculos VII e VI a. C., e que corresponde ao objecto principal do estudo disponível 1 . Figura 1 -Distribuição das intervenções no casco histórico de Lisboa onde se identificaram níveis de ocupação ou espólio da Idade

Latest researches on bronze sculptures in the ancient Mediterranean allowed us to recognize a family of Phoenician figurines, mostly male, stretching from the Levant to the West. In this process, the findings from the Iberian peninsula, where are outstanding those coming from Huelva and Cadiz, have special relevance. In this paper, new discoveries from Huelva, that recently have been added to the already known ones coming from the seabed, are studied. These new findings increase our knowledge about this craft group and the technical qualification of the Phoenician bronzesmiths.

ÇI si Tyrichae no fos una simple llegenda?È Els treballs de recerca arqueol˜gica desenvolupats els darrers anys en els territoris dels rius Ebre i SŽnia han estat intensos, productius i significatius. LÕaven• assolit en el coneixement de les comunitats protohist˜riques dÕaquesta ˆrea estˆ dibuixant un panorama hist˜ric cada vegada mŽs ric i prec's dÕaquests grups hist˜rics.

Gli autori intendono esprimere la loro più viva gratitudine agli amici e collee Alessandro Naso, che hanno fornito importanti indicazioni su molti dei pezzi indagati in questa sede. Un sentito ringraziamento va infi ne a Laura Napoli per il contributo alla traduzione in italiano del testo di Jaime Vives-Ferrándiz. ma metà del I millennio a.C. intrapresero relazioni commerciali con elementi di stirpe diversa venuti da varie aree del Mediterraneo.

The first millennium BCE represents for Egypt a period of tremendous changes and developments on the political, social, economic and religious level. The millennium was shaped and characterised by a continuous interaction between Egypt as an independent political entity, with its indigenously developed social and religious system, and various political, military and cultural forces and influences introduced into the country, both through occupation and trade. The first millennium BCE offers an unusually varied and rich source of textual and iconographical material. Throughout the millennium one observes a conscious retrieval and interpretation of the past based on the traditions of the third and second millennium BCE in an attempt to preserve the country’s cultural identity in the face of foreign influences and occupation. As a result, new religious and social concepts developed which were incorporated in the ideological and administrative spheres of the centralised state and manifested themselves in art, architecture, language, and religion.
In early September 2009, the Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Charles University in Prague hosted an international workshop dedicated specifically to social and religious developments in Egypt in the course of the first millennium BCE. The volume at hand contains twenty of the papers presented at the workshop.

El descubrimiento de una sene de edificaciones monumentales aisladas que se extienden por un espacio que grosso modo coincide con los límites territoriales de la actual provincia de Badajoz durante el período post-orientalizante (550-400 aC), permite personalizar arqueológicamente este territorio y diferenciarlo de otras zonas limítrofes. Así sucede, fundamentalmente, con el Bajo Guadalquivir y con las comarcas orientales de la Meseta Sur, regiones que desde mediados del siglo VI aC asisten a una acelerada transformación del sustrato orientalizante que generará, respectivamente, los horizontes Turdetano e Ibérico Antiguo. También se detectan acusadas divergencias con el panorama que la actual investigación del Hierro Antiguo comienza a definir para la Alta Extremadura en lo que a poblamiento se refiere, a pesar de las analogías que se observan en algunos elementos de cultura material. Sin embargo, son mucho más matizadas las diferencias que cabe establecer con el sur de Portugal, hecho hasta ahora escasamente advertido. Característica común a todas estas regiones es, en cualquier caso, el carácter parcelario y asistemático de la investigación arqueológica del período que aquí nos ocupa, hecho que apenas permite asentar unos mínimos criterios básicos en lo que se refiere a poblamiento, organización social, economía y desarrollo cultural de las poblaciones que las ocuparon.

As a reaction against the so-called “Mercantile pattern”, the traditional explanation for the Phoenician colonization in the Iberian Peninsula, in recent times a series of interpretative alternate theories have been suggested. They can be ordained in two main groups: The first one arises around the idea of the agricultural colonization, born in the 1980s, and it has evolved and been changed from then. The second, dealt with the colonial phenomenon from the study of the Aristocratic Societies of the Orientalizing Mediterranean. From the study of some significant archaeological evidences such as the jars of red slip ware, the sets of ritual bronze vessels or the burial architecture, some approaches to the relationship between the archaeological reality and these interpretative currents are tried.

This paper deals with a statue mentioned a long time ago by De Meulenaere and Von Bothmer. The author found it again in the Beyrouth Museum's deposits and propose hereby an editio princeps.
Thus, the author investigated on the reason of the setting of an egyptian statue from Athribis in Tyr in a Late Roman stratum. Considering widely the phenomenon of the athribite statues from near eastern sites, it seems that a Roman reuse of those statues for Isiac cult in Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire could explain the all athribite statues file.

This paper reconsiders the cave sanctuary at Grotta Regina, to the north of Palermo, where a cult was established between the 5th and the 2nd/1st century BC. After a brief description of the cave, I outline the history of the research, and then point out what the new research perspectives might be. In particular, I emphasize a connection between the cave and war, which seems emblematic of a phase when Sicily was the stage of numerous clashes that saw Carthage play a leading role in the island’s events. There seem to be many links between this sanctuary and the North African metropolis, enough to suggest the involvement of Carthage in the use of this sacred place.